Common Council Adopts Budget

NEW BRITAIN — The common council adopted a $179.3 million budget Tuesday night that calls for a 3.88 mill tax increase -- the highest the city has seen in several years.

The increase brings the city's tax rate to 54.76 mills. A property owner with a home assessed at $70,000 will pay about $270 more a year.

``Unfortunately, there is no happy ending,'' Mayor Lucian Pawlak said after the vote. ``The dependence on property taxes, it's just a failed system that nobody wants to fix.''

Many on the 15-member council, which voted 8-7 for the spending plan, said this year's budget process was one of the toughest in years. A stagnant grand list combined with a lack of state money forced the city to rely heavily on property taxes to fund the city's school system -- the portion of the budget that most divided the council.

The spending plan gives the school district $94.5 million, down from the board of education's request of $96.8 million. About $66 million of that was allocated to meet the state's minimum expenditure requirement.

Two Democrats, Aldermen Jason Jakubowski and Timothy O'Brien, joined the council's five Republicans in voting against the mayor's budget.

Jakubowski said he would have liked to have seen more funding for education, adding that the amount of money the city-owned Connecticut Wolves have cost the city over the years could have been better spent on the school system.

``I am not willing to accept this budget as the best that we can do,'' Jakubowski said.

While acknowledging the burden the tax increase would cause some residents, Arthur Helfgott, also a Democrat, spoke in favor of the budget.

``This budget maintains a first-class education system,'' he said.

Timothy T. Stewart, the Republican minority leader, said he felt more could have been trimmed from the city side of the budget. He suggested the council discuss cutting ``excesses'' in the city government before next year's budget, ``or we're going to end up being in the same place next year. ... We'll probably have to make a worse decision.''

Others on council disagreed, saying that the city departments are as lean as they can be and that the council did the best budget they could with what they have.

``Every year we're dealt with the same dilemma,'' said President Pro Tem Mark Bernacki, a Democrat. ``We have a flawed system, using only property taxes in a poor community. The state does not come up to the plate.''